RAF Kinloss

RAF Kinloss opened on 1 April 1939 beside the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, built not for operations but for training. It began as No. 14 Flying Training School, with Hawker Harts, Airspeed Oxfords and Ansons, and from 1940 became home to No. 19 Operational Training Unit, which turned out heavy-bomber crews on Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys and later Wellingtons; No. 45 Maintenance Unit made it Scotland’s main aircraft store. After the war Kinloss found a new and lasting purpose as a maritime-patrol base, flying Shackletons and then Hawker Siddeley Nimrods with Nos. 120, 201 and 206 Squadrons through the Cold War and beyond. RAF flying ended in 2012 when the Nimrod fleet was retired; the site continues in service as the Army’s Kinloss Barracks.